I was pretty much prepared to hate this, to dismiss it as a silly exercise on both fronts--on introducing a "story" to a chess game, and on implementing a chess endgame in a parser game.
But no. In fact it ended up working for me. The story was a little silly, perhaps, but the "you won't get her back" aspect of it did elevate it a little; and as a chess ending, you're right, it's pleasantly surprising. In the end it worked for me far, far more than I expected.
Thanks for this! It was a really nice boost, and I really appreciated it, because I'd been slumping a bit with my writing. The effect was what I was hoping for: I didn't want to make some universal message, but I hoped one or two people would say "I don't enjoy chess but I did enjoy this."
Balancing silliness with something serious was something I wanted to do and I didn't quite succeed, but that's what post-comp releases are for.
Hope you find time to play the other ParserComp games, too! Authors do appreciate the feedback, and it's good to see as many votes as possible.
"Didn't quite succeed" might be true, but I think you came pretty close, which isn't at all bad for a comp entry. ;-)
And, yes, working my way through the other games. I know how civic duty works! (Also, now that I see your response, I'm like, "Oh, of course"; it's a name I readily recognize--warmly--from several years of rating IFComp games. :-) )
